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Walmart, Target CEOs privately warned Trump tariffs could lead to empty shelves soon

By
Fin Daniel Gómez
Fin Daniel Gómez
Political Director and Executive Director of Politics and White House, CBS News
Fin Daniel Gómez is CBS News' political director and executive director, Politics and White House. In this role, Gómez oversees the daily White House and political coverage for CBS News and works closely with Washington bureau leadership to inform the Network's political coverage.
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Fin Daniel Gómez,
Richard Escobedo
Richard Escobedo covers economic policy at CBS News and is a coordinating producer at Face the Nation with Margaret 91³Ô¹ÏÍø. He joined CBS in 2018 and is a graduate of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.
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Richard Escobedo

/ CBS News

The chief executives of Walmart and Target privately warned President Trump this week that his sweeping tariff policy could disrupt supply chains and lead to empty shelves in the coming weeks, sources familiar with the White House meeting told CBS News.

The CEO of Home Depot was also present at Monday's closed-door meeting. Axios was on the retail executives' warnings to Mr. Trump.

Target and Walmart declined to comment on the specific warnings.

Following their meeting with Mr. Trump on Monday, both companies did issue statements.

"We had a productive meeting with President Trump and his team and appreciated the opportunity to share our insights," Walmart said in a statement.

Target, in a similar statement, said "we had a productive meeting with President Trump and our retail peers to discuss the path forward on trade, and we remain committed to delivering value for American consumers."

The two retailers have publicly warned that Mr. Trump's tariffs could lead to higher prices. Weeks after Mr. Trump's election win, Walmart CFO John David Rainey , "We never want to raise prices," but "there probably will be cases where prices will go up for consumers." 

And last month, Target CEO Brian Cornell , "the consumer will likely see price increases over the next couple of days" from tariffs planned on imports from Mexico, noting Target heavily relies on Mexican produce to stock its grocery shelves in the winter.

The Trump administration 145% tariffs on Chinese goods and 10% tariffs on most other countries. Mr. Trump also announced steep "reciprocal tariffs" on dozens of other U.S. trading partners earlier this month, but paused most of the non-China levies for 90 days. 

The import duties have rattled markets in recent weeks and prompted fears about rising consumer prices, slower economic growth and supply chain shortfalls. The Trump administration has considered forming a working group to handle any strains on supply chains caused by the China tariffs, CBS News reported last week.

Mr. Trump has stood by his tariff strategy, casting it as a way to boost U.S. manufacturing and stymie what he views as unfair trade practices — but he has indicated he would like to negotiate new trade deals with other countries. The president told reporters Tuesday he expects the 145% China tariffs to "come down substantially, but it won't be zero."

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